Another Vulcan thread

[sunchaser]

When anchor shopping a few years ago I noted on our dock walks many roll bar anchors appearing on a wide variety of vessels. Then I noted some internet chatter about failing Rocnas. As time went on and the Rocna guys said they'd solved their problems with many more of them showing up. I chatted up a few owners of rusty looking Rocnas that had obviously seen a lot of use. The owners loved them.

One night in a short scope situation in Ganges the wind was howling and boats were dragging all over the place crashing into each other with sail boats joining together and ensuing fouled rigging. Our Bruce did OK but we moved ten feet of so the best we could tell.

So once again I walked the docks talking to obviously well used anchor owners. The condense was if you're wanting a new anchor go Ultra, Excel or Rocna. I still had the failed Rocna message lurking, Ultra was pricey but a new player had appeared - Vulcan.

Vulcan and Rocna were now designed and manufactured by an arm of the old Canadian metallurgical group Cominco. I knew some of the guys and heard about the new design and build process for the Vulcan. Since the roll bar wouldn't fit as best I could tell, Vulcan it was, one size up from the well used Bruce.

So 3/8 BBB, all chain rode 40 kg Vulcan resides. Five years later and too many sets to remember never an issue. We are short scopers too due to great tidal swings and deep water so common in BC and AK.

All that said, a SS Ultra would be nice.

 

[Andy G]

FWIW, we purchased a Rocna 25kg anchor about 6 years ago and have just recently replaced it with a 22kg Sarca Excel.

The main reason we swapped was we had had a few instances with the anchor dragging at short scope (3-4:1) and twice the unit did not reset on a wind shift. The reset issue was a worry and could have ended badly.

This somewhat dented my confidence in the Rocna as we tend to anchor in depths of 42-50'. Importantly for us our anchor locker will not take more than 210' of 3/8" chain, so in some situations we could simply not set our anchor at 5:1 let alone anything more.The short scope test results for the Excel were a deciding factor for us.

From our experience the Sarca is also easier to clean as it does not seem to bring up as much of the sea bed as the Rocna, though this is a relatively minor consideration and did not affect our decision to swap.

One other factor was pleasant surprise.For once living in Oz gave us a price advantage over the US. Our Sarca (22KG)cost us a little less $700(AUS) against $1200 for a 25kg Rocna.

The new anchor works well, as you would expect, on its new Sarca bow roller, attached to the flip link and hauled in by our spanking new Lofran Tigres winch.

So no excuses if we drag an anchor now.

 

[BruceK]

FWIW, we purchased a Rocna 25kg anchor about 6 years ago and have just recently replaced it with a 22kg Sarca Excel.

The main reason we swapped was we had had a few instances with the anchor dragging at short scope (3-4:1) and twice the unit did not reset on a wind shift. The reset issue was a worry and could have ended badly.

This somewhat dented my confidence in the Rocna as we tend to anchor in depths of 42-50'. Importantly for us our anchor locker will not take more than 210' of 3/8" chain, so in some situations we could simply not set our anchor at 5:1 let alone anything more.The short scope test results for the Excel were a deciding factor for us.

From our experience the Sarca is also easier to clean as it does not seem to bring up as much of the sea bed as the Rocna, though this is a relatively minor consideration and did not affect our decision to swap.

One other factor was pleasant surprise.For once living in Oz gave us a price advantage over the US. Our Sarca (22KG)cost us a little less $700(AUS) against $1200 for a 25kg Rocna.

The new anchor works well, as you would expect, on its new Sarca bow roller, attached to the flip link and hauled in by our spanking new Lofran Tigres winch.

So no excuses if we drag an anchor now.

Wise move Andy. The old Super Sarca didn`t fit the Integrity so we bought the Excel too.

 

[Peter B]

....The convex CQR and Delta shape is more often called a plow (or plough). Rex Frances (ARA) vehemently !!! denies the Excel is a plough, even though it looks very much like a Delta.
-Chris

If you look at a real plow or plough, there is only one blade, or ploughshare, not two joined at the upper edge - therein lies a huge difference. If you shaped a plow like say the Excel, a horse would not be able to move with it. It would dig in, dig down - then stop..!
Plowshare
Image result for Plowshare
In agriculture, a plowshare (US) or ploughshare (UK; /ˈplaʊʃɛər/) is a component of a plow (or plough). It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter (one or more ground-breaking spikes) when plowing.